Disney/Eric McCandless

Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider opened up about how the game show changed her perspective on her looks. To celebrate Transgender Awareness Month, the champion is embarking on a tour for her book, In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life. She talked to CBS News KPIX in the Bay Area about her experience.

Amy Schneider ranks number two behind Ken Jennings for most consecutive games won with 40 on the Leaderboard of Legends. She is also ranked number four for Highest Winnings in Regular Season Play with $1,382,800. Schneider’s final Jeopardy! achievement is being ranked number five for All-Time Winnings (including tournaments) with $1,682,800.

She told her local news station how Jeopardy! made her not care about how she looked or sounded. “It really sort of forced me to get over a lot of my doubts about my self-image and about my voice and everything else because I was on national television for a couple of months,” Schneider said.

“Ever since then, I have really not worried about my appearance or anything else. I dress for myself and I look how I want to look, not how I think I have to to appeal to other people,” she added.

Schneider came out as a transgender woman during her run in 2021 and transitioned in 2017. At an event to help LGBTQ+ leaders, she used her platform to speak out on gender-affirming care and other transgender issues.

“Healthcare is being taken away from transgender kids in some places, and the movement behind that wants to take it away from all trans people everywhere,” she said. “It’s only because we’ve come so far that it’s possible for these attacks to be happening.”

“To know that I have been able to do something, even inadvertently, to make trans people happy, to help them, to give them some sort of comfort with the struggles they’re going through, it’s just incredibly meaningful and it’s something I never thought would happen in life,” she continued.

Along with In the Form of a Question, Schneider recently released a kids’ version of her book called Who Is Amy Schneider? Questions on Growing Up, Being Curious, and Winning It Big on Jeopardy!.